A COMPUTER repair man found with movies and pictures of child rape on his laptop has walked free from court.

Robert Copeland had been downloading scores of images of young boys as young as two being abused.

But after hearing the 39-year-old lacked 'intellectual maturity' and told police he felt he had 'betrayed God' with what he had done, a judge imposed a suspended sentence.

Copeland, of Chiminage Close, Marlborough, admitted three counts of making indecent images of children and one of having prohibited images.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how officers acting on intelligence went to his home in May last year.

She said that it had been found that his internet protocol address had been used on a peer to peer file sharing site to download the material.

When he was spoken to by officers he said he had the file sharing software and had seen indecent images of children.

"He said he was not interested in 'that rubbish', as he put it, so he deleted it," Miss Squire said.

"Of course the laptop was subjected to a detailed forensic examination by the police and a significant number of pictures and movies were found."

She said there were 10 movies and 51 pictures in category A, depicting the most serious child abuse.

"All were showing what would appear to be rather hideous abuse of young children," Miss Squire said.

One of the films was 35 minutes long and others a similar length, she said, and the age range of youngsters was as low as two or three.

An examination of search engines showed Copeland he had been looking for material involving pre teen boys.

When he was questioned he said he 'felt like he had betrayed God, and had let God down', she said.

Although there was a limited amount of material found on the machine Miss Squire said he works as a freelance computer repair man and had changed its operating system.

The court heard that because Copeland suffers from a lack of intellectual maturity custody could be counterproductive.

Passing sentence Judge Robert Pawson said "It may feel if you are just looking at an image you are not really doing anything wrong.

"But somewhere around the world a child is being abused so those photographs can be taken.

"Anyone who downloads those images is contributing directly to the abuse of these children. Some of those children were aged two or three."

He imposed a 12 month jail term suspended for two years with rehabilitation activity requirement and a sexual harm prevention order.